Cold Winters
by koronda daruma
Summary: Super late Shizuru Birthday/Christmas fic. Anyways, please read!


**A/N: **Uhh… Shizuru's B-day/Christmas/winter fic. Sorry it's so late. I kinda just felt like writing this randomly and that time seemed to fit the best. Haha. Don't own Mai-HiME.

* * *

Beginning of December equals winter, and she _hates_ it.

For her whole life, Natsuki had lived in Japan, yet she never got used to the cold winters in Tokyo. She didn't even know how to dress for the cold. Walking down the streets, several hours after the sun had set, she put her hands in her pockets to trying keep herself as warm as possible. Natsuki, adorning her usual hoodie and a casual blazer along with jeans and her chucks, quietly walked down the streets. Passer-bys may think that she was dressed out to go somewhere special, but she wasn't really headed out anywhere in particular, she just have any warm clothes.

Correction, Natsuki doesn't really mind the winter; it's just that she couldn't stand the cold. Yet here she was, sitting under the streetlights in the park. She had forgotten her keys to her apartment and didn't know what to do. She figured that she'd take a nice walk out before she got stressed out about what to do next.

Now, on the other hand, we have Shizuru and she loves the winter. What season could be better than the one held both Christmas and her birthday? Oh and how she loved the cold weather. The cold crisp breeze hitting your face as you leave your warm house. It was the perfect season to be with the ones you love.

Shizuru loves the thought of the holiday season, celebrating her birthday with a few special people, sharing presents and opening them on Christmas Eve while sitting next to the heater with the one you love. Yet, this year, she was all alone. With her family back in Kyoto, she had no one to look forward to celebrate her birthday with, and the one she loved the most, the one person that she would give anything to be with, she could not bring herself to ask for her company. It was only the 18th of December and this was starting off to be one of the worst winters ever.

After thinking about how she went from loving this season, to counting down the days till it ends, Shizuru got dressed and decided to take a walk to clear her mind from these depressing thoughts. She put on her warm boots, along with a pair of jeans over her stockings. She grabbed one of her warmer jackets that was lined with fur and put it over her long sleeve shirt. She then grabbed her scarf and keys and headed out. She thought about grabbing a hat, but decided against it, that would just be overkill. She loved this cold weather, and loved dressing for it too. Sometimes she would even just go out in a light jacket just so she could feel the coldness.

After about ten minutes of walking, she stumbled upon the cutest little thing. There she saw Natsuki sitting on the bench with her feet curled up and hugging her legs while she rested her chin on her knees. She gave a gentle smile to the seemingly sleeping figure and quietly approached her. She took a seat next to her and the sleeping girl snapped her head up. The slight shake of the bench when she sat had woken her up. Natsuki's actions had scared Shizuru so she jumped a little out of the seat. But unfortunately for her, a little was just a little too far. She was seated at the edge of the bench, and then jumped out and landed on the cold pavement.

Natsuki was not expecting anyone, but at the sight of her friend, she quickly got up from her seat to help her back up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Shizuru apologized and brushed herself off before Natsuki could help her up.

"No, I wasn't expecting anyone here." Natsuki replied before sitting back down. The silence started back up again and Shizuru sat back on the bench. Natsuki returned to her previous position.

Reading the silence and not wanting to be a bother to one of her only true friends, she was about to excuse herself before she noticed that Natsuki had closed her eyes again and that she was shaking. Shizuru unconsciously took off her scarf and started to wrap it around Natsuki's neck. Her hand briefly bushed against her cheek and felt the iciness of it.

"How long were you out here?" Shizuru asked, resisting the urge to touch Natsuki's cheek again.

"I don't know, what time is it?" Natsuki asked not expecting an answer. She quickly looked at her watch, not really looking at the time; it was kind of a habit to glance at it when she questioned herself. "I was locked out of my place and decided to take a walk."

"You're freezing." Shizuru pointed out the obvious. She stood from her seat and continued, "You can come to my place to warm up until you can get a spare key."

When there was no answer, she assumed that Natsuki was refusing her offer and just decided to just get up and walk away. 'Yeah right, wishful thinking Shizuru.'

After about ten or so steps, she heard someone running towards her. She turned around and faced Natsuki who seemed to want to follow her back. After Natsuki had caught up, without saying a word, she took hold of Shizuru's hand. When the cold hand hit her hand, she quickly retracted it from surprise. Looking at Natsuki's face, she had an embarrassed look and Natsuki blushed a little and raised her shoulders and lowered her head a little so that her face and blush were partly hidden by the scarf. Shizuru quickly berated herself for such a foolish action. She could not turn back time to change the fact she pulled away from the one person's hand she would want to hold, but she could try again. In attempts to fix her mistakes, she gently slid her hand back into Natsuki's. Natsuki looked back at Shizuru's face to see a small, warm, welcoming smile and her blushed deeper.

Shizuru knew that Natsuki's innocent action was only to find warmth and she shouldn't think anything of it. "Oh yeah, happy birthday Shizuru." Shizuru silently smiled to herself; she couldn't help but start to think that it wasn't going to be such a bad winter after all.

* * *

**A/N:** Ok ok. I know, I know... Its kinda bad. I haven't written in a really long time. I'm sorry. Well I'm sorry for two things really. One for this fic being as bad as it was, and for not finishing that other story that I'm writing that I can't think of the name. Yeah, if you read it, I think you might know. I promise I'll finish it soon. I think. I don't remember what it was about so I have to re-read the other chapters and try to think about how I wanted that to go. If you have any inputs to that message me _please_ and I might get it up. Anyways, sorry for the sidetrack, but please review this story as well. Criticism is greatly welcomed. ;D


End file.
